Northland coming to MorphOS

[olegil]

@amigamad:

We've already decided not to use the TLA "FPS" for first person shooters, since it already meant frames per second. Please comply with the following terms:

1PS first person shooter
3PS third person shooter
2PS second person shooter (1PS or 3PS, but you're the one getting shot at  :-P )

Thanks in advance :-)

[Dietmar]

classic AmigaOS runs only on Amigas wich are very slow and obselete

Repeating this again and again doesn't make it true: Classic AmigaOS probably outperforms Morphos (or AOS4, if it was available) on x86 hardware: the fastest household PC provides the combined speed of five Pegasos mainboards.  There may be other reasons not to support AOS3, and I'm not going to get into that, but it certainly isn't speed.

[Zorro]

Dietmar wrote:

Classic AmigaOS probably outperforms Morphos (or AOS4, if it was available) on x86 hardware

But is emulation...

We want to use all the horsepower of the machines that we own... and in the best way possible.

[Dietmar]

> But is emulation...

Sure. On the other hand, what happens deep down under the hood is of no concern to me (and I understand that the emerging PPC platforms have their share of emulation, too, so maby we don't want to open that drawer). All I want to say is that it's stupid to dismiss AOS3 on grounds of speed: AOS3 has no problem with speed if running on suitable hardware. An AOS3 version would have the added benefit to run on AOS4, x86 and Morphos (assuming that the PPC can run m68k code fast enough; Morphos is said to reach 70% of the native PPC speed).

[mahen]

Dietmar: it makes sense. Ppl could buy it for Amithlon and then use it on their new PPC machine. However, when you own a PC, you have already access to tons of games for lower prices...

So for ppl who just have an amiga or pegasos, this game would only run properly on pegasos...

But you make a point. More ppl could buy it and play on PC to support Epic. Anyway, they'll consider a quick port when OS4 is released.

And MOS or OS4 is the way to go (ppl won't be using emulators with os3 forever : we need to build the future of the platorm).

[Dietmar]

> And MOS or OS4 is the way to go (ppl won't be using emulators with os3 forever)

With no AOS4 in sight and no Pegasos in production, announcing the death of AmigaOS on x86 may be a bit premature. And there is AROS. In another thread here many advocated making Morphos open source. AROS already is open source and has that appeal to geeks. I don't think AROS has a chance if AOS4 sees the light of day and Pegasos boards  are produced again in the fall, but wouldn't totally ignore it. Its developers seem to be pretty resistant

[Rudei]

Well done to MorphOS and its good news for its users.  

But is their any chance people can stop slaggin off AmigaOS4 or is that just too much to ask?

Your right, its not here yet - but give it a rest with all your "doom and gloom predictions" of it not being ready this side of the next Millenium - its all getting very tiring and pretty pathetic

[mahen]

Rudei: I definitely agree. The bashing comes from both sides BTW...

[Rudei]

@mahen

I know it does - but I`m also sure it comes from a lot of people who have no intention of buying either OS4 or MorphOS hardwares and operating systems...

Which kinda leads me on to the burning question of asking them - "what are you doing here?"

Did you take a wrong turn at google and end up here by mistake?  :-D

[downix]

@amigamad

Don't tell this to the creators of the Civilization or Age of Empires series.

[System]

it would be pretty stupid if  game companys made games just to run on emulators... Amigas 'classic' ARE slow as sin...this is a good modern game... not speed ball..

sure emulators are fast but so what? their gonna port to an emulator?... why not just wait for OS4 and port to that if/when it comes out.... and port to MOS for now.. that makes more sense..

[Dietmar]

sure emulators are fast but so what? their gonna port to an emulator?

You don't have to "port" Amiga software to an emulator or write software "for" an emulator. All you have to do is release an AOS3/m68k version of your software. That will automatically run everywhere: on Amigas, on Pegasos, on AmigaOne, on UAE, on Amithlon. With exception of classic Amigas, these platforms are about equally fast, with the x86-based emulators leading the pack. And don't forget that, while the game's m68k core would run under an emulator, OS functions called by the game, at least to some degree, run native. For example, WinUAE utilizes DirectX and the Windows file system. That very much limits the performance impact of emulation.

Does it take a rocket scientist to release a AOS3/m68k version ? I don't know. If the game is written in C and mostly self-contained, without Morphos dependencies, the porting effort might be minimal (as in hours). What's the alternative ? Target a niche audience and say goodbye to sales ?!

[AmiGR]

Pegasos MOS "Beta" users (it's not beta anymore...)
are about 300 and will become ~520 when the rest
of the boards arrive. Be sure that Epic will support OS4 as soon as it gets available, if it suits their needs.
Mos, together with OS4 will have about 1200
users imho, so it's logical to support both of them
sell more.

[AmiGR]

I'm not a big fan of RTS games, I prefer FPS too but:
1) This game is demanding enough to need a Peg or
AOne.
2) RTS games are certainly *NOT* the same soup.

[AmiGR]

Don't be too sure about that. When you run Amithlon,
EVERYTHING needs to be emulated, on faster hardware.
Emulated applications use emulated OS functions and emulated extension libraries. On MOS and OS4
native or emulated applications use TOTALLY PPC native libs. In everyday use the speed is about the
same as Amithlon on a VERY fast PC.

[AmiGR]

Why make a version that would probably ONLY run on emulated hardware? What if the game uses
vmemory or other stuff only available on MOS or OS4? Do you know how much work it is to bring the
memory requirements down enough to not need it?
Especially on PC 1PS ports...